Recent content by mso_kirk

Not a joke. The patient wasn't OD'd to the point of being comatose, but semi-conscious with decreased respirations. They tried to scope him but he kept biting down enough to obscure the view. The report said they were bagging him semi-successfully but not enough to keep the sats up, but then...

I forgot about the previous comment on central lines as well. Our MPD at my old department was a big believer in them. I started two in my career as a street medic (we were allowed to start sub-clavians only). One was a trauma patient we couldn't get a peripheral line in and needed to get...

I don't recall all of the details right now as they weren't my patients (I drive a desk these days). I remember the trauma ones. I know that one of the trauma patients had trismus of some sort and they couldn't get him relaxed enough to use a laryngoscope. The other one had significant...

Yes, we run that amount of calls out of one station with one ambulance, although occasionally we have to use a backup rig if our first out is on a long transport. I understand what you're saying, and RSI is probably more symbolic of much wider problems (things like having to call in to be able...

Perhaps I'm not explaining our demographics and circumstances well enough, but it probably doesn't matter in the long run. The person we have to convince is the doc, not the people here. ;) We are a busy municipal department that runs over 6000 ALS calls per year in an all career...

Veneficus - Sorry if it's a pet peeve of yours, but in our case the doc is the first to admit he doesn't feel comfortable with emergency medicine because of his GP specialty. When we first floated the RSI protocol his comment was, "Guys, you have to understand I haven't intubated anybody or...

We are admittedly not the most up to date system. :sad: We have tiny volunteer agencies surrounding us that have much more advanced protocols than we do. We still have to call in to ask permission to give certain drugs like Lasix for pulmonary edema and narcs for pain control, and we don't...

Smash - I don't know why we have romazicon. It was in the protocols for years before I was hired. Our MPD is of the opinion that if we carry any benzos that we have to have it. It's never been used to my knowledge. BTW, I appreciate the input of everyone so far. This is stuff I can take...

We've been fighting with our medical director for years to get RSI protocols. He's resisted the whole time, despite the fact that every single ALS agency around us now has it. In any case, he recently signaled that he would relent and allow us to have RSI protocols. But what he's come up with...